XVII.

Matt. xi. 25, 26.

Ibid. 21, 22, 23.

ART. lieve that the other is likewise free, according to those words of our Saviour's, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes: the reason of which is given in the following words, Even so, Father, for it seemed good in thy sight. What goes before, of Tyre and Sidon, and the land of Sodom, that would have made a better use of his preaching, than the towns of Galilee had done, among whom he lived, confirms this, that the means of grace are not bestowed on those of whom it was foreseen that they would have made a good use of them; or denied to those who, as was foreseen, would have made an ill use of them: the contrary of this being plainly asserted in those words of our Saviour's. It is farther observable, that he seems not to be speaking here of different nations, but of the different sorts of men of the same nation: the more learned of the Jews, the wise and prudent, rejected him, while the simpler, but better sort, the babes, received him: so that the difference between individual persons seems here to be resolved into the good pleasure of God.

It is farther urged, that since those of the other side. confess, that God by his prescience foresaw what circumstances might be happy, and what assistances might prove efficacious to bad men; then his not putting them in those circumstances, but giving them such assistances only, which, how effectual soever they might be to others, he saw would have no efficacy on them, and his putting them in circumstances, and giving them assistances, which he foresaw they would abuse, if it may seem to clear the justice of God, yet it cannot clear his infinite holiness and goodness: which must ever carry him, according to our notions of these perfections, to do all that may be done, and that in the most effectual way, to rescue others from misery, to make them truly good, and to put them in a way to be happy. Since therefore this is not always done, according to the other opinion, it is plain that there is an unsearchable depth in the ways of God, which we are not able to fathom. Therefore it must be concluded, that since all are not actually good, and so put in a way to be saved, that God did not intend that it should be so; Rom.ix.19. for who hath resisted his will? The counsel of the Lord Ps. xxxiii. standeth fust, and the thoughts of his heart to all generations. It is true, his laws are his will in one respect: he requires all to obey them: he approves them, and he obliges all men to keep them. All the expressions of his desires that all men should be saved, are to be explained of the

11.

will of revelation, commonly called the sign of his will. ART. When it is said, What more could have been done? that is XVII. to be understood of outward means and blessings: but still God has a secret will of his good pleasure, in which he de- Isa. v. 4. signs all things; and this can never be frustrated.

From this they do also conclude, that though Christ's death was to be offered to all Christians; yet that intentionally and actually he only died for those whom the Father had chosen and given to him to be saved by him. They cannot think that Christ could have died in vain, which Gal. ii. 21. St. Paul speaks of as a vast absurdity. Now since, if he had died for all, he should have died in vain, with relation to the far greater part of mankind, who are not to be saved by him; they from thence conclude, that all those for whom he died are certainly saved by him. Perhaps with relation to some subaltern blessings, which are through him communicated, if not to all mankind, yet to all Christians, he may be said to have died for all: but as to eternal salvation, they believe his design went no farther than the secret purpose and election of God, and this they think is implied in these words, all that are given me of my Father thine they were, and thou gavest them me. He also limits his intercession to those only; I pray not for the John xvii. world, but for those that thou hast given me; for they are 9, 10. thine: and all thine are mine, and mine are thine. They believe that he also limited to them the extent of his death, and of that sacrifice which he offered in it.

It is true, the Christian religion being to be distinguished from the Jewish in this main point, that whereas the Jewish was restrained to Abraham's posterity, and confined within one race and nation, the Christian was to be preached to every creature; universal words are used concerning the death of Christ: but as the words, preaching to every Mark xvi. creature, and to all the world, are not to be understood in 15. the utmost extent, for then they have never been verified; since the Gospel has never yet, for aught that appears to us, been preached to every nation under heaven; but are only to be explained generally of a commission not limited to one or more nations; none being excluded from it: the Apostles were to execute it in going from city to city, as they should be inwardly moved to it by the Holy Ghost: so they think that those large words, that are applied to the death of Christ, are to be understood in the same qualified manner; that no nation or sort of men are excluded from it, and that some of all kinds and sorts shall be saved by him. And this is to be carried no farther, without an imputation on the justice of God: for if he

ART. has received a sufficient oblation and satisfaction for the sins XVII. of the whole world, it is not reconcileable to justice, that all should not be saved by it, or should not at least have the offer and promulgation of it made them; that so a trial may be made whether they will accept of it or not.

Ps. cx. 3.

33, 34. Ezek. xxxvi. 26,

The grace of God is set forth in Scripture by such figures and expressions as do plainly intimate its efficacy; and that it does not depend upon us to use it, or not to Eph. ii. 10. use it at pleasure. It is said to be a creation; we are 2 Cor. v. 17. created unto good works, and we become new creatures; it is Phil. ii. 13. called a regeneration, or a new birth; it is called a Jer. xxxi. quickening and a resurrection; as our former state is compared to a feebleness, a blindness, and a death. God is said to work in us both to will and to do: His people shall be willing in the day of his power: He will write his laws in Rom. ix.21. their hearts, and make them to walk in them. Mankind is compared to a mass of clay in the hand of the potter, who of the same lump makes at his pleasure vessels of honour or of dishonour. These passages, this last in particular, do insinuate an absolute and a conquering power in grace; and that the love of God constrains us, as St. Paul speaks expressly.

27.

All outward co-action is contrary to the nature of liberty, and all those inward impressions that drove on the Prophets, so that they had not the free use of their faculties, but felt themselves carried they knew not how, are inconsistent with it; yet when a man feels that his faculties go in their method, and that he assents or chooses from a thread of inward conviction and ratiocination, he still acts freely, that is, by an internal principle of reason and thought. A man acts as much according to his faculties, when he assents to a truth, as when he chooses what he is to do and if his mind were so enlightened, that he saw as clearly the good of moral things, as he perceives speculative truths, so that he felt himself as little able to resist the one as the other, he would be no less a free and a rational creature, than if he were left to a more unlimited range: nay, the more evidently that he saw the true good of things, and the more that he were determined by it, he should then act more suitably to his faculties, and to the excellence of his nature. For though the saints in heaven being made perfect in glory, are no more capable of farther rewards, yet it cannot be denied but they act with a more accomplished liberty, because they Ps.xxxvi.9. see all things in a true light, according to that, in thy light we shall see light: and therefore they conclude that such an overcoming degree of grace, by which a man is made

XVII.

willing through the illumination of his understanding, and ART. not by any blind or violent impulse, is no way contrary to the true notion of liberty.

After all, they think, that if a debate falls to be between the sovereignty of God, his acts and his purposes, and the freedom of man's will, it is modest and decent rather to make the abatement on man's part than on God's; but they think there is no need of this. They infer, that besides the outward enlightening of a man by knowledge, there is an inward enlightening of the mind, and a secret forcible conviction stamped on it; otherwise what can be meant by the prayer of St. Paul for the Ephesians, who had already heard the Gospel preached, and were instructed in it; that the eyes of their understanding being enlightened, Eph. i. 17, they might know what was the hope of his calling, and what 18, 19. the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what was the exceeding greatness of his power towards them that believed. This seems to be somewhat that is both internal and efficacious. Christ compares the union and influence, that he communicates to believers, to that union of a head with the members, and of a root with the branches, which imports an internal, a vital, and an efficacious influence. And though the outward means that are offered may be, and always are, rejected, when not accompanied with this overcoming grace, yet this never returns empty: these outward means coming from God, the resisting of them is said to be the resisting God, Acts vii. 51. the grieving or quenching his Spirit; and so in that sense we Eph. iv.30. resist the grace or favour of God: but we can never withstand him when he intends to overcome us.

As for perseverance, it is a necessary consequence of absolute decrees, and of efficacious grace: for since all depends upon God, and that as of his own will he begat us, Jam. i. 17, so with him there is neither variableness nor shadow of 18. turning whom he loves he loves to the end; and he has Joh. xiii. 1. promised, that he will never leave nor forsake those to whom Heb. xiii. 5. he becomes a God: we must from thence conclude, that the purpose and calling of God is without repentance. And therefore though good men may fall into grievous sins, to keep them from which there are dreadful things said in Scripture, against their falling away, or apostasy; yet God does so uphold them, that though he suffers them often to feel the weight of their natures, yet of all that are given by the Father to the Son to be saved by him, none are lost.

Upon the whole matter, they believe that God did in himself and for his own glory foreknow such a determinate

ART. number, whom he pitched upon, to be the persons in XVII. whom he would be both sanctified and glorified: that having thus foreknown them, he predestinated them to be holy, conformable to the image of his Son: that these were to be called not by a general calling in the sense of Mat.xx.16. these words, many are called, but few are chosen; but to be called according to his purpose: and those he justified upon their obeying that calling; and he will in conclusion glorify them. Nor are these words only to be limited to the sufferings of good men, they are to be extended to all the effects of the love of God, according to that which follows, that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Rom. ix.18. Christ. The whole reasoning in the 9th of the Romans does

Rom. viii. 29, 30.

Ver. 11.

Ver. 17.

Ver. 22.

xiv. 8.

so plainly resolve all the acts of God's mercy and justice, his hardening as well as his pardoning, into an absolute freedom, and an unsearchable depth, that more express words to that effect can hardly be imagined.

It is in general said, that the children being yet unborn, neither having done good or evil; that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth; Jacob was loved, and Esau hated; that God raised up Pharaoh, that he might shew his power in him; and when an objection is suggested against all this, instead of anVer. 20. swering it, it is silenced with this, Who art thou, O man, that repliest against God? And all is illustrated with the figure of the potter; and concluded with this solemn question, What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction? This carries the reader Exod.iv.21, to consider what is so often repeated in the book of Exodus, x. 20. concerning God's hardening the heart of Pharaoh, so that he xi. 10. would not let his people go. It is said, that God has made the Prov. xvi.4. wicked man for the day of evil; as it is written on the Acts xiii. other hand, that as many believed the Gospel, as were 48. appointed to eternal life. Some are said to be written in the Rev. xiii. 8. iii. 5. book of life, of the Lamb slain before the foundation of the xx. 12. world, or according to God's purpose before the world began. xxi. 27. Ungodly men are said to be of old ordained to condemnation, and to be given up by God unto vile affections, and to be given over by him to a reprobate mind. Therefore they think that reprobation is an absolute and free act of God, as well as election, to manifest his holiness and justice in them who are under it, as well as his love and mercy is manifested in the elect. Nor can they think with the Sublapsarians, that reprobation is only God's passing by those whom he does not elect; this is an act unworthy of God, as if he forgot them, which does clearly imply imperfection.

Rom. i. 26.

28.